His proud
answer to
the Nazi torturers. – Also his brother-in-law, Moishele Kraszner, who
perished
in Jewish martyrdom

Among the
[large number] of Jewish victims who
perished in Jewish martyrdom in the Warsaw Ghetto is found the
Radomsker Rebbe
Reb Shlomoh Henokh Hakohan Rabinowicz, who was killed along with his
wife, his
only daughter and his son-in-law, Reb Dovid Moishe Rabinowicz.

As it is
told, the Radomsker Rebbe died as a
martyr and a hero.

Nazi
Gestapo-agents rushed into his dwelling
in the Warsaw Ghetto and ordered him to go with them. Every Jew in the
ghetto
knew that whoever the Nazis took with them would no longer live to see
the
light shining on the world. They dragged their victims to a death camp,
where
gas wagons were ready and the Jews were sent there. The Radomsker Rebbe
refused
to follow the order of the Nazi agents and he worthily answered:

“I know
that you have come to kill me. I am
ready to die here in my room and not somewhere in a gas-wagon!...”And
when the
Rebbe ended the “ekhod” of the “Shema Yisroel” [last word
of the
prayer said every day on the oneness of God] that he was saying, a Nazi
bullet
punctured his brain and his family was killed together with him on the
spot:
his wife, his daughter and son-in-law.

With the
death of the Radomsker Rebbe, an
entire rabbinic dynasty perished. The Nazi bullet that punctured the
brain of
the Radomsker Rebbe extinguished the light of the last male of the
great
rabbinic stock, which stretches from the first Radomsker Rebbe, Reb
Shlomoh
Radomsker, famous in the Hasidic world under the name of the Hasidic sefer
(book) that he wrote: “Tiferes Shlomoh.”

The last
Radomsker Rebbe had thousands and
thousands of Hasidic followers in Poland and in Galicia. It can be said
the he
was the only Rebbe in Poland of whom it can be said that many Hasidim
traveled
to him from Galicia. Before the recent World War there were more
Radomsker shtiblekh
(small prayer houses) than Gerer in Krakow.

The young
Radomsker Hasidim were very visible
because the Radomsker Rebbe founded yeshivus (religious
schools) in a whole
line of cities, in which around two thousand young men studied.

The
Radomsker yeshivus were in the
cities of Radomsk, Bendin, Sosnowice, Krakow, Lodz, Piotrokow, Chraznow
and in
a whole line of other cities.

The
Radomsker Rebbe was an unusual rebbe. He
was both a rebbe and a businessman. He was not an ordinary businessman,
but a
millionaire, who was counted among the Jewish millionaires in Poland
and among
the rabbis he certainly was the greatest millionaire.

Alas in the
last fifty years, it was not news
that rabbis would manage businesses in Poland. There were other rebbes
who were
partners in large business undertakings. However, officially, a Hasid
wanted a
rebbe as a partner in his business in order to be sure that with the
rebbe’s
blessing, the business would prosper.

The
Radomsker Rebbe was not just a partner to
other businessmen, but he himself headed large businesses. He owned a
large
number of houses in Poland, and from 1933, before Hitler came to power,
he also
owned many houses in Berlin and in Leipzig. And at the same time, the
Radomsker
Rebbe also sat day and night learning Torah and doing service for God.
He
devoted himself to the yeshivus he had built in various cities
in Poland
and Galicia and the businesses were run by his devoted Hasidim.

On every
beautiful Shabbos and yom-tov
(religious holiday) thousands of Hasidim from every city in Poland and
Galicia
would come to Sosnowice, where the Rebbe lived before the Second World
War. The
Rebbe would head the office of Hasidic Rebbe as in the old Radomsker
manner,
reciting Torah, singing

Shabbos songs,
sharing his leftovers [which the
Hasidim would eat as a matter of honor] and serving food.

How did his
Hasidim react to such things?

The Rebbe
gave away half of his fortune for
the upkeep of the yeshivus in the various cities, and as he was
himself
a businessman, he did not have to ask the Hasidim for money. This gave
him the
opportunity to be independent and to have the opportunity to serve God
undisturbed.

The Rebbe
truly spent a great deal of money
for his private library. After the Gerer Rebbe, the Radomsker Rebbe had
the
largest private library in Poland. Each year the Radomsker Rebbe would
spend
thousands to buy old writing and old prints.

____________

The last
Radomsker Rebbe, who was murdered by
the Nazis, was the fourth generation from the founder of the Radomsker
Dynasty,
Reb Shlomoh’le Radomsker.

In his
youth, Reb Shlomoh Radomsker was a
businessman. Then he was Rabbi in Radomsk and then a rebbe.

The Rebbe
Shlomoh Radomsker immediately earned
the name of a great tzadek (righteous man). Hundreds of Hasidim
traveled
to be with him and many rebbes sat at his table.Hasidim
tell
that
when the Rebbe Reb Moishe Lelewer-
Reb Dovid’l Lelewer’s son – emigrated
to Eretz-Yisroel, he first went to take leave of Reb Shlomoh
Radomsker.
At the leave-taking, the Rebbe Reb Moishe Lelewer asked Rebbe Shlomoh
Radomsker
to bless him. At the departure, it is told, the Lelewer Hasidim asked:

–“Rebbe,
with whom are you leaving us?”

–“With
Rebbe Reb Shlomoh Radomsker,” Reb Moishe Lelewer answered.

The Rebbe
Reb Shlomoh Radomsker was also a
great singer. He had a beautiful singing voice. He prayed in front of
the
lectern every Shabbos and every yom-tov.

And
suddenly when
the Radomsker was already well-known in all of Poland as a great rebbe,
he
decided to travel to another rebbe, as an ordinary Hasid. He chose for
his
rebbe, Reb Haim Halbersztat of Sanz.

The entire
Hasidic
world was then in an uproar. It was not a small thing, a rebbe of
hundreds and
hundreds of Hasidim leaves his seat and himself becomes a Hasid. And
then the
Radomsker Rebbe chose to go to Sanz on Shavous, on a yom-tov when many
Hasidim come to him.

And Hasidim
tell
that before the Radomsker Rebbe traveled to Sanz, his son Reb
Avrahame’le, his
later successor, asked:

–“Tata (father),
how can you leave so many Hasidim on such a holyyom-tov,Shavous? How can you cause
grieving among so many God-fearing and sincere men?”

–“My
child,” the Rebbe Reb Shlomoh answered, “I’m getting old, and I want to
again
feel the taste of receiving Torah that Jews felt when they stood at
Mount Sinai
and this I can only feel when I am with the holy Sanzer Rebbe.

And his
son, Reb
Avrahame’le no longer asked. Hundreds of Hasidim came to Radomsk on
that Shavous,
they prayed in the Radomsker Synagogue; however, without their rebbe.
Rebbe Reb
Shlomoh went to Sanz.

The
Radomsker Rebbe died
on a Thursday at night in 5626 (1866) after midnight prayers in
commemoration
of the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem. Hasidim tell that the
Gerer
Rebbe (the Chiddushei HaRim) died a week earlier. The Radomsker
Rebbe
asked his Hasidim about the Gerer Rebbe’s funeral.

At night on
the same
Thursday, two rebbes, the Rebbe Reb Tzamekh of Chrolowice and the Rebbe
Reb
Ahron of Krakow, the son of “Meir Shamas,” arrived in Radomsk.
After
saying “Sholem Alecheim” [greeting each other], the Radomsker
Rebbe
spent two hours with them discussing the death of the Gerer Rebbe and
he said,
“Who will welcome this Shabbos at the lectern now in Gan-Eyden
[Garden of Eden or paradise]?”

And the
Radomsker
Hasidim really believe that the old Radomsker Rebbe is the one who
welcomes Shabbos
at the lectern in Gan-Eyden right up to the present day.

His son,
the Rebbe Reb
Avraham’ele, who became rebbe after the death of Reb Shlomoh Radomsker,
also
had many Hasidim in Poland and in Galicia. He left Khesed L’Avraham,
a
book
about
Torah. He also wrote a book about Torah, Knesset
Yehezkeil. His son was the last Radomsker Rebbe Reb Shlomoh Henokh,
who
built many yeshivus in various cities in Poland and in Galicia.

When the
recent war
broke out, the Radomsker Rebbe ran from Sosnowice, where he lived after
the
First World War, to Aleksander. From there most likely he was sent by
the Nazis
into the Warsaw Ghetto,where the
Nazi barbarians cut down the tree of the Radomsker Dynasty and killed
him with
his entire family with such savagery.

The
Radomsker Rebbe’s
brother-in-law, the Rebbe Reb Moishe’le Tverski of Kras, who was a son
of my
uncle, the Rebbe Reb Ahrele Twerski, of blessed memory, of Kras, also
perished
in Jewish martyrdom at the hands of the Germans, together with his
entire
family, with his rebetzin Freidele and his only daughter Tziva.

At first
the Krosner
Rebbe Reb Moishe’le was saved in Lemberg, together with his mother, my
aunt
Doyzele, may she rest in peace, who was the daughter of the old
Razwadower
Rebbe, Reb Moishe’le Horowicz, of blessed memory. Her daughters Simkha
and
Miriam with her husband the Rebbe Reb Nafthali Horowicz, the last
Razwadower
Rebbe and their children were there, too.Later, when Aunt Doyzele died in Lemberg, they returned to Kras
and
there they all perished in Jewish martyrdom…

Let us on
this day,
when we remember the Ghetto Uprising in Warsaw, and every day of the
year, and
for all eternity,remember what
the Germans did to the Jewish people, and let us never forgive them…

­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­

Photo
caption: The Krosner Rebbe, Reb Moishele
Twerski, a brother-in-law of the Radomsker Rebbe, may the Lord avenge
his
blood, who perished as a martyr as a Jew, together with his entire
family in
Poland.